Good Tuesday morning, which is sort of like a Monday on this four day workweek.
I struggled when trying to decide what to write about today. It was a tossup between International Hot and Spicy Food Day and National Fig Newton Day. Both have their strengths, and since I love me a good fig cookie AND put hot sauce on just about everything (with the exception of fig cookies and other sweets), I went back and forth for a while on this one.
Since we’re in the middle of an Arctic deep freeze, though, I decided to go with the spicy stuff and leave American’s beloved figgy cookie, (which really does have an interesting origin story, if you’ve got some time on your hands to go down the internet rabbit hole) for another day.
First, a public service announcement, because it has been a while since we had one. And also, because I care.
Extreme cold weather is no joke. You should take precautions when going outside to protect yourself – and your furry friends – and also be sure to pay attention to things like pipes and heating and ventilation systems.
Even though it might seem counterintuitive, remember to drink plenty of fluids (and make sure your pets do as well), because it’s easy to get dehydrated when things are very dry, and dry mucous membranes don’t fend off illnesses as well. And stock up on lotion and lip balm, because chapped, dry, raw skin and lips is no fun at all.
Aside from bundling up, eating spicy foods – most notably capsaicin, a compound found in hot peppers – can help increase your circulation and raise your body temperature, which might help you feel warmer from the inside out. (Or cooler, depending on what it’s like outside, since raising your body temperature can result in sweating, which is the body’s natural air conditioning).
Interestingly, capsaicin has analgesic properties and has long been used as a homeopathic remedy. Other benefits include the potential to help curb your appetite and boost your metabolism, which helps burn more calories while you’re at rest. AND, capsaicin can inhibit stomach acid production, which could help prevent ulcers.
This last bit is a little counter-intuitive, as it’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that something that burns going down and, ahem, coming out, actually isn’t somehow causing damage. Have some dairy handy – or some bread, rice, or an acidic drink – if you’re eating spicy food and worry that things might get a little too hot to handle.
Of course, just as with anything else, moderation when consuming capsaicin is the key. If you overdo it, you can irritate your month, stomach, and even your intestines. There is even some suggestion that if you REALLY overdo it on a regular basis, you might increase your likelihood of developing certain types of cancer.
If you really, REALLY overdo it, or if you perhaps have an adverse reaction, capsaicin can be deadly. But experts stress that even the hottest peppers out there, ghost peppers, are highly unlikely to kill you.
With the temperature refusing to even get anywhere above 30 at least until next week, I’ll take all the heat I can get – any way I can get it. Today will be cloudy with an 80 percent chance of snow – one to three inches of accumulation is expected in the Albany area – and temperatures in the high 20s.
In the headlines…
After nearly a year of campaigning, more than $123 million in ads and a frozen-over finish, the Iowa caucuses ended much as the race began: Donald Trump, the dominant front-runner, was declared the winner before most of the votes had even been cast.
Far behind Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida narrowly pulled ahead of Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor. Their close finish gave both a rationale for continuing their campaigns, which is likely to help the former president.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy finished a distant fourth, and announced he was ending his campaign, and then immediately endorsed Trump for the White House.
Trump’s decisive victory in Iowa revealed a new depth to the reservoir of devotion inside his party.
A polar vortex plunged Iowa into temperatures well below zero, in what appears to have been the coldest caucus day ever. Somewhere around 112,000 Iowans caucused, well shy of the record of approximately 186,000 set in 2016.
The New Hampshire primary is next week.
Joseph Tacopina, the trial lawyer Trump’s legal team with the most successes defending high-profile clients, will no longer represent the former president in his criminal trial in Manhattan, according to a notice sent to the court yesterday.
A Manhattan jury will be asked a narrow question this week: How much money must Trump pay the writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him of raping her?
Dangerously cold temperatures limited Martin Luther King Jr. Day events across the nation as a winter storm and arctic blast touched down on several parts of the country.
Communities generally unaccustomed to major winter storms, from Tennessee to Texas, canceled or postponed events honoring Dr. King.
Vice President Kamala Harris warned that American freedom was “under profound threat” in a speech honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in South Carolina, amplifying a message that the Biden administration has made a rallying cry of its re-election bid.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign raised more than $97 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 giving the incumbent president a campaign war chest of $117 million while his Republican rivals spend heavily in the GOP primary fight.
Biden’s cash-on-hand is a record amount for a Democratic presidential candidate at this juncture of the election cycle, according to his campaign.
Biden issued a plea for supporters to donate to his campaign in the wake of Trump’s victory in Iowa.
Barack Obama veterans view his 2012 reelection campaign as a master class in political organizing that offers key lessons for 2024. Some believe it’s been dangerously ignored by a Biden team that prides itself on its own victory over Donald Trump four years ago.
The White House yesterday became the latest victim of a growing US problem of “swatting”: the summoning of large numbers of law enforcement personnel and other first responders to a hoax emergency incident.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III was released from the hospital yesterday, after a two-week stay for complications from prostate cancer surgery that he had kept secret from the White House for several days, the Pentagon announced.
“(Austin) continues to recover well and, on the advice of doctors, will recuperate and perform his duties remotely for a period of time before returning full-time to the Pentagon,” a DoD statement read. “He has full access to required secure communications capabilities.”
Austin has experienced some lingering leg pain; he was discharged home with planned physical therapy and regular follow up. According to the DoD: “The Secretary is expected to make a full recovery.”
Boeing will conduct additional inspections for the production of its 737 Max aircraft model following the recent midair blowout of a panel on one of its aircraft earlier this month, the company’s head announced.
After a Boeing 737 Max 9 narrowly escaped catastrophe, the US company must regain trust that it can still build reliable aircraft.
A plane taxiing for departure clipped another aircraft at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Sunday evening, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
A domestic flight operated by Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) returned to its departure airport on Saturday after a crack was found in a window in the cockpit of the Boeing 737-800 plane, the airline said.
Flight NH1182 “experienced a crack on one of the outermost of the four layers of the cockpit window,” All Nippon Airways said. “During the flight the cabin pressure of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft was normal and the landing was made under normal conditions.”
No injuries were reported, both planes were of Boeing design, and the FAA says it will investigate the incident.
Aeronautic officials debuted a new quiet supersonic plane capable of flying faster than the speed of sound and getting from New York to London in three and a half hours.
Both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams will release budgets today.
Closing a $4.3 billion budget deficit will likely force cuts in the spending plan Hochul introduces and then negotiates with lawmakers to try to finalize a budget by April 1.
Hochul has ordered a review of art in the Capitol that shows Native Americans, often in ways that glorify violence against Indigenous people.
The Buffalo Bills renewed their call for help shoveling the NFL team’s stadium ahead of their wild-card game yesterday against the Pittsburgh Steelers, as the city grappled with nearly a foot of snow.
The impact of the storm that caused the wild-card playoff game to be rescheduled was visible throughout the stands as many fans dug their way through snow to the seats. The field was cleared, as were the parking lots, but the majority of seats were not.
The Bills were in search of shovelers (at a rate of $20 an hour) to help clear Highmark Stadium in advance of the AFC wild-card playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Bills beat the Steelers 31-17 in Buffalo, in a game delayed a day by a blizzard, and will now get to face the Chiefs team that knocked them out of the playoffs after both the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
The Bills have a lot of injuries to overcome in a short period of time.
New York makes it easier to get an abortion than adopt a baby thanks partly to a bombshell Hochul administration edict, critics rail.
An independent Super PAC has been launched to help Republican Mazi Pilip defeat ex-Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi in the Feb. 13 special election to fill the House seat vacated by the expulsion of lying ex-Congressman George Santos.
Suozzi opened his campaign headquarters in Great Neck Sunday — the hometown of Republican rival — in a bid to reclaim his old seat.
Suozzi’s financial disclosure filing reveals he had $700,000 in income last year.
In the two months since its launch, Adams’ legal defense trust has raised at least $650,000 to help cover lawyer fees he and his associates rack up as part of an FBI investigation into his 2021 campaign’s finances.
The fund will be required to report the names of all donors who give more than $100 during each reporting period, according to the board’s guidance.
City Hall is planning to impose curfews on four migrant respite centers starting today. Officials said that roughly 1,900 adult asylum-seekers staying at the centers will need to be checked in nightly between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The directive marks Adams’ first major step to address the complaints of neighbors who say they have been assailed by desperate asylum-seekers begging door to door for food and clothes.
City Hall vowed to investigate reports of “lawlessness” following The Post’s investigation on spiking crime around the controversial Floyd Bennett Field shelter — while migrants housed at the site said troublemakers were giving other asylum-seekers a bad rep.
Parents are pushing back against using dozens of New York City public schools for early voting when kids are in the building, citing safety concerns and disruptions to the regular school day from canceled gym classes to no hot meals.
New York City is testing out new technology that automatically prevents school bus drivers from speeding as part of an initiative to protect children and pedestrians across the five boroughs.
Investigators at the state Department of Labor visited the MTAs East New York Bus Depot at least twice recently amid continued complaints that the fire sprinkler system at the complex remains inoperable.
The MTA has begun installing camera equipment on New York highways to prepare to monitor a controversial $15 congestion toll to enter Manhattan’s central business district south of 60th Street as early as May.
State inspectors reportedly have seized marijuana being sold illegally at a Brooklyn “cannabis cafe” that brazenly posted a bogus state license in the window of its storefront.
Mike Tyson has become the most visible newcomer of the celebrity wave in the state’s cannabis industry – one of the biggest names yet to test how far fame can carry a brand in a market that is shaping up to be one of the world’s largest and most competitive.
Richard Henderson, 45, a father of three and a grandfather to two little girls, was fatally shot aboard a No. 3 train in Brooklyn after intervening in an argument between two other passengers over loud music in the car, the police said.
A barefoot man was found hanged inside a subway tunnel near Grand Central Station in an apparent suicide over the weekend, cops said.
Lots of people like to complain that parts of downtown Albany feel like one big parking lot — especially the area around the bus station. But when it comes to parking lots, the city is actually about average, a new study finds.
A criminal insider trading case against a British billionaire investor boss and longtime owner of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club snagged his 66-year-old private pilot from the Hilltowns of Albany County.
Downtown Troy’s future will be shaped by the sale of three properties formerly owned by a local developer that were taken over by a lender, city officials and real estate representatives for the new California-based owner said.
HBO’s chronicle of a feuding media dynasty, “Succession,” took best drama honors for its final season at the Emmys last night, the third time the show has claimed television’s most prestigious prize.
The show now joins the fabled ranks of dramas that were rewarded with top honors for their farewell seasons, a lineup that includes “The Sopranos,” “Breaking Bad” and “Game of Thrones.”
Photo credit: George Fazio.
